Unconditional but Not Zero-Trust: Trust Leakage in Quantum Security Architectures

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Autore principale: Jassar, Mohamed
Natura: Recurso digital
Pubblicazione: Zenodo 2025
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author Jassar, Mohamed
author_facet Jassar, Mohamed
contents <p>Quantum cryptographic and quantum computing </p> <p>security mechanisms are frequently described as uncondition-</p> <p>ally secure, relying on fundamental physical laws rather than</p> <p>computational hardness assumptions. However, unconditional</p> <p>security does not necessarily imply compliance with zero-trust</p> <p>security principles, which assume no implicit trust in system</p> <p>components, participants, or adversary models. This distinction</p> <p>remains insufficiently examined in existing literature.</p> <p>This paper investigates whether contemporary quantum secu-</p> <p>rity architectures satisfy zero-trust requirements at the protocol</p> <p>and architectural level. We present three conceptual simula-</p> <p>tions analyzing (i) binary trust decision failures in quantum</p> <p>key distribution, (ii) trust leakage under escalating quantum</p> <p>adversary capabilities, and (iii) insider resilience in a zero-trust</p> <p>quantum multi-party computation framework. All simulations</p> <p>intentionally exclude device imperfections, side-channel attacks,</p> <p>and human misconfiguration to isolate trust assumptions inherent</p> <p>to protocol design.</p> <p>Results demonstrate that quantum security mechanisms rely</p> <p>on implicit trust anchors, bounded adversary models, and delayed</p> <p>failure detection, leading to silent risk accumulation even under</p> <p>idealized conditions. While zero-trust–inspired quantum architec-</p> <p>tures significantly improve adversarial resilience and early risk</p> <p>awareness, they do not eliminate trust entirely.</p>
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publishDate 2025
publisher Zenodo
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spellingShingle Unconditional but Not Zero-Trust: Trust Leakage in Quantum Security Architectures
Jassar, Mohamed
Cryptography
Quantum computers
Hacking
Pentesting
<p>Quantum cryptographic and quantum computing </p> <p>security mechanisms are frequently described as uncondition-</p> <p>ally secure, relying on fundamental physical laws rather than</p> <p>computational hardness assumptions. However, unconditional</p> <p>security does not necessarily imply compliance with zero-trust</p> <p>security principles, which assume no implicit trust in system</p> <p>components, participants, or adversary models. This distinction</p> <p>remains insufficiently examined in existing literature.</p> <p>This paper investigates whether contemporary quantum secu-</p> <p>rity architectures satisfy zero-trust requirements at the protocol</p> <p>and architectural level. We present three conceptual simula-</p> <p>tions analyzing (i) binary trust decision failures in quantum</p> <p>key distribution, (ii) trust leakage under escalating quantum</p> <p>adversary capabilities, and (iii) insider resilience in a zero-trust</p> <p>quantum multi-party computation framework. All simulations</p> <p>intentionally exclude device imperfections, side-channel attacks,</p> <p>and human misconfiguration to isolate trust assumptions inherent</p> <p>to protocol design.</p> <p>Results demonstrate that quantum security mechanisms rely</p> <p>on implicit trust anchors, bounded adversary models, and delayed</p> <p>failure detection, leading to silent risk accumulation even under</p> <p>idealized conditions. While zero-trust–inspired quantum architec-</p> <p>tures significantly improve adversarial resilience and early risk</p> <p>awareness, they do not eliminate trust entirely.</p>
title Unconditional but Not Zero-Trust: Trust Leakage in Quantum Security Architectures
topic Cryptography
Quantum computers
Hacking
Pentesting
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18065836